# Extended detection and response for enterprise buyers: what AI models recommend, September 2026

IT AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition. Asked as "XDR platform" and as "extended detection and response solution", six framings each, to twelve models with search on, on behalf of an enterprise B2B company. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/security/extended-detection-and-response/enterprise/

**Standing:** Microsoft Defender XDR leads with 46% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 46 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| # | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Microsoft Defender XDR | 46% | 10% | 52 |
| 2 | Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR | 15% | 18% | 49 |
| 3 | CrowdStrike Falcon XDR | 11% | 10% | 20 |
| 4 | CrowdStrike Falcon | 9% | 23% | 26 |
| 5 | SentinelOne Singularity | 4% | 10% | 40 |
| 6 | Stellar Cyber | 4% | 4% | 24 |
| 7 | Trend Vision One | 0% | 27% | 26 |
| 8 | Cisco XDR | 0% | 35% | 17 |

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: CrowdStrike Falcon XDR; alternatives Microsoft Defender XDR, Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR, SentinelOne Singularity
- GPT-5.4 mini: Microsoft Defender XDR; alternatives Cisco XDR, Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Microsoft Defender XDR; alternatives CrowdStrike Falcon, Elastic Security, Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR, SentinelOne Singularity
- Perplexity Sonar: CrowdStrike Falcon XDR, Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR; alternatives Microsoft Defender XDR, Secureworks Taegis, SentinelOne Singularity, Stellar Cyber
- Grok 4.1 Fast: CrowdStrike Falcon XDR, Microsoft Defender XDR; alternatives Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR, SentinelOne Singularity
- Mistral Small: Microsoft Defender XDR; alternatives CrowdStrike Falcon, Palo Alto Networks, SentinelOne Singularity, Trend Vision One
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Microsoft Defender XDR, Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR; alternatives CrowdStrike Falcon XDR, SentinelOne Singularity
- Llama 4 Maverick: Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: CrowdStrike Falcon, Microsoft Defender XDR; alternatives Palo Alto Networks, SentinelOne Singularity, Trend Vision One
- Kimi K2: CrowdStrike Falcon XDR, Microsoft Defender XDR; alternatives Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR, Stellar Cyber
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: CrowdStrike Falcon XDR, Microsoft Defender XDR; alternatives Bitdefender GravityZone XDR, Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR, SentinelOne Singularity, Stellar Cyber
- MiniMax M2.5: Microsoft Defender XDR; alternatives CrowdStrike Falcon, Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR, Trend Vision One

## Sources the answers cite

63 of 72 answers came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- gbhackers.com: 41 answers, 59 citations
- paloaltonetworks.com: 40 answers, 63 citations
- decryptiondigest.com: 32 answers, 34 citations
- cyberpress.org: 31 answers, 37 citations
- guideflow.com: 28 answers, 28 citations
- cybersecuritynews.com: 26 answers, 36 citations
- gartner.com: 22 answers, 34 citations
- esecurityplanet.com: 21 answers, 21 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://gbhackers.com/best-xdr-platforms-compared (40 answers)
- https://decryptiondigest.com/blog/best-xdr-platforms-2026 (31 answers)
- https://paloaltonetworks.com/cyberpedia/xdr-solutions (31 answers)
- https://cyberpress.org/xdr-platforms-by-business-size (28 answers)
- https://guideflow.com/blog/xdr-platform (28 answers)
- https://cybersecuritynews.com/best-xdr-platforms (22 answers)
- https://esecurityplanet.com/products/xdr-security-solutions (21 answers)
- https://gartner.com/reviews/market/extended-detection-and-response (20 answers)
- https://gbhackers.com/best-managed-xdr-compared (12 answers)
- https://aimultiple.com/xdr-solutions (11 answers)

## Warned against

- Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR: 9 of 49 labels negative. "Palo Alto Cortex XDR often quotes a low per-endpoint rate ... but charges significant additional fees for data ingestion and retention ... your bill will spike unpredictably." (GLM 4.7 FlashX, budget prompt)
- Trend Vision One: 7 of 26 labels negative. "Avoid if you are a multi-vendor environment and choose Fortinet or Trend Micro." (GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt)
- Cisco XDR: 6 of 17 labels negative. "Platforms to Avoid or Approach with Extreme Caution ... Cisco SecureX / Cisco XDR" (Kimi K2, negative prompt)
- CrowdStrike Falcon: 6 of 26 labels negative. "Native platforms like CrowdStrike, Palo Alto Cortex, Microsoft Defender XDR, SentinelOne, Trend Micro, Sophos, Trellix, and Cisco are best suited when your environment is already heavily invested" (Mistral Small, negative prompt)

## Record

- Method: https://it-ai-index.com/methodology/
- Raw judge labels and full responses: https://it-ai-index.com/data/
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as IT AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition, it-ai-index.com.